Find ways to stabilize the game's performance for smoother play.
Find ways to stabilize the game's performance for smoother play.
For a modded fallout 4 to have constant frames you need lots of frequency and IPC. I have played the game since 2015 so I have used lots of CPUs with it. In 2015 I used an i7 2600k. The drops from 60 were to the 30s. This felt really bad and by level 50 the game stuttered. With a i7 6700k in 2016 the drops were in the 40s and I could get to level 80 on a character without stutter. In 2017 I used a i7 8700k and the drops stock were in the 50s but with a 4.9ghz overclock 98% of the frames were over 60. In 2018 I went with a i7 8086k and did an all core 5ghz overclock that got all frames over 60. My game now has more mods and is much harder to run so it only runs smoothly on my R7 5800x and my i9 10900k computers. If it was not for Fallout 4 I would not have bought either CPU since my i7 8086k and i9 9900k can run any vanilla game perfectly. The high resolution texture pack does not look good even at 4k and since my game already uses over 7gbs vram with out it, I go over 10.5gbs with it. The biggest frame rate hits in the game are from NPCs. This it is when you enter a cell they are in and this is also where you can get the most crashes. Then comes building mods like Sim Settlements. It is still the game I play between new releases with the other being Space engineers and that game murders setups as well.
But one of the mods I got included a compiler in a batch file for pre-launch setup, and it keeps showing the same three version errors. Just press 'no' three times to ignore them, then it leads you to the launcher. A shortcut for the .bat file was saved on my desktop. The mod I downloaded was a manager or framework, an .exe that had to be run before launching the game for the first time. Should I jump straight to Fallout4.exe? And how do I turn off tesselation? Do any of these steps actually boost GPU usage as I want? I’m sure it’s possible to lock the frame rate, since speedrunners often need FPS capped at 60 or less. There’s an exception for this glitch, but it seems outdated now due to changes in loading handling. It requires a timer that detects load times and an FPS under 15. (It lets you glide through the air but only in one direction—used for Fort Hagan and Kellogg, yet the game takes a long time to load chunks each second, freezing everything. This state can be spotted by custom live split mods and helps fix the messy loading screens.) Maybe I should message speedrunner TomatoAnus, who’s known for locking FPS. I already have F4SE, AWKER, Armorsmith Extended, MCM, a different flashlight mod, full dialogue interface, and see-through scopes. Is there a way to skip the memory den walkthrough? I own every DLC, so it’s possible. Mods can be saved and loaded from another drive, which helps with performance. It runs smoothly compared to my Xbox’s HDD. I have a Ryzen 5 3600, which gives good IPC and stays at 4.2 GHz thanks to the stock cooler. It used to boost from 3.6 GHz to 4.2, but now it’s locked at 4.2 before a limiter kicks in. I’ve added some NPC mods for variety, but I’m not planning to use Sim Settlements anytime soon. Is it true that FO4 is limited to four threads?
Yes and no. For Vortex, the mod staging folder needs to be on the same drive as the game files, but you can place the downloads folder on a different drive to save space. I keep mine on my HDDs, takes a bit longer to extract the larger ones but it avoids consuming my SSD's space. There's this ancient .bat that may or may not work as the game has been updated since it was released: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9287/ I just run through them to the last one, it's annoying but less so than sitting through the whole sequence again. Pretty sure you could use console commands to autocomplete that quest step once you're given it too?
The engine runs on a single thread, but I've observed three threads operating at 50% capacity simultaneously. My game is currently running on a 5800x display. CPU3 handles the majority of processing, and this thread runs on both my i7 and i9 processors. Memory usage in the game has surpassed 7GB. This increase is likely linked to the recent mod that displays visible weapons for players and NPCs.
I just installed that mod as well. Even if it doesn't directly cause your VRAM consumption, I was unsure if I really needed it. Unless another mod relies on it as a prerequisite, I'm holding off and won't delete it tonight. My GPU only supports 6GB of GDDR6. The issue is that despite having all my mods (though I haven't progressed far enough in the game to collect most items or reach certain areas) and improved texture quality, my VRAM usage is still under 50%. I haven't built settlements or visited Boston yet, so I'm just sharing this because even indoors my frame rate drops below 40 FPS and usage is lower than expected. I've logged around 200 hours in FO4 across three saves—vanilla, two modded versions, on Xbox—but my saves got corrupted and I ended up with a PC now. I'm playing there because I can safely use mods like those from LL without worrying about losing progress. So far on PC, I've only played for about three hours, and just finished Preston's first settlement mission, which required clearing the Corvina plant. Ugh, that guy is annoying. For me, while playing, cores 0-3 (four threads) are consistently spiking at the same time with similar usage, while cores 4-11 stay idle—mostly because I'm running a torrent program and about eight Chrome tabs, mainly PDFs that consume memory. I also notice those four threads often drop below 30% usage, but spike up to over 80%. I've never had RTSS work well for me; maybe I should invest more time in setting it up correctly.
Looking at your Fallout4Pref.ini file, it seems to handle GPU recognition and settings. It checks if your GPU is detected and adjusts values accordingly, like swapping 780 Ti for your real GPUs. The file also accounts for different cards such as Navi and Polaris, and it manages VRAM limits set by the game. You mentioned trying alternatives like RX 590 or RX 580, and even considering community support. It’s worth checking if the game supports newer cards and whether your settings align with current requirements.
I played with a 6gb GTX 980 at launch in 2015 while streaming at 4k. When I added mods, I upgraded to a 980 ti SLI with the same 6gbs VRAM to maintain smooth performance. In 2017 I switched to a GTX 1080 ti with 11gbs, which allowed more mods. My game still runs flawlessly on the 1080 ti and doesn’t require the 2080 ti at all. I’ve expanded the game world with 14 new settlements, excluding DLCs. My top pick is this one: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/17681. I no longer play the game, but I’m considering adding the Brotherhood later. I enjoy keeping my settlers alive through combat and daily survival mechanics. It’s mainly a CPU-focused title, so my 2080 ti usually stays around 1200mhz unless action is intense. Oddly enough, the 2080 ti struggles more with the 5800x compared to i7/i9. Save corruption tends to happen when using a HDD in modded games. Switching to SSDs has eliminated corruption issues. My latest save is 102mbs, but it might fail on a HDD. According to Steam, I’ve logged over 7,000 hours in the game. RTSS is peculiar for Fallout 4—it doesn’t appear in screenshots but shows up only in the print screen buffer.
Your Fallout4Pref.ini isn't being detected by the system. It comes from a 5800x configuration, yet it shows up as GTX 1080 Ti. The issue seems fixed since 2016, and AMD cards often cause texture problems rather than GPU not recognition. If you notice a crumpled foil texture, it's likely the card itself. Adjust settings accordingly: shadow map resolution, focus, and lighting options as needed.
Even when CPU usage on the four threads stays above 35%, I’m still experiencing performance limits. It feels like a software problem tied to Bethesda’s development, pushing the game to unrealistic frame rates. I believe this issue can be resolved and have seen similar fixes before, though I’m unsure how to proceed. My system can handle the game at 1080p60, but I’m frustrated with the lag at lower frame rates—24 to 36 FPS is unacceptable. My save files got corrupted because I didn’t account for how my mods were stored inside the FO4 folder. After uninstalling FO4 to free space, it backed up saves to the cloud but deleted my 1.8GB of mods. Using banned mods and reinstalling from the original disk didn’t restore them, and some mod files got corrupted during the process. About a year ago I stopped playing on console. The file I’m referring to came from a 9900K/1080Ti PC, though it originally came from a 5800X/2080Ti one. I’m hoping a patch exists for texture issues, as they seem relatively simple to fix. Also, is the “black face” bug still present? Do they have a mod to address it? I’m unsure if altering Nate/Nora’s models would work, but that might be a viable option.